NAME
_syscall - invoking a system call without library support (OBSOLETE)
SYNOPSIS
#include <linux/unistd.h>
A _syscall macro
desired system call
DESCRIPTION
The important thing to know about a system call is its prototype. You
need to know how many arguments, their types, and the function return
type. There are seven macros that make the actual call into the system
easier. They have the form:
_syscallX(type,name,type1,arg1,type2,arg2,...)
where
X is 0–6, which are the number of arguments taken by the system
call
type is the return type of the system call
name is the name of the system call
typeN is the Nth argument’s type
argN is the name of the Nth argument
These macros create a function called name with the arguments you
specify. Once you include the _syscall() in your source file, you call
the system call by name.
FILES
/usr/include/linux/unistd.h
CONFORMING TO
The use of these macros is Linux-specific, and deprecated.
NOTES
Starting around kernel 2.6.18, the _syscall macros were removed from
header files supplied to user space. Use syscall(2) instead. (Some
architectures, notably ia64, never provided the _syscall macros; on
those architectures, syscall(2) was always required.)
The _syscall() macros do not produce a prototype. You may have to
create one, especially for C++ users.
System calls are not required to return only positive or negative error
codes. You need to read the source to be sure how it will return
errors. Usually, it is the negative of a standard error code, for
example, -EPERM. The _syscall() macros will return the result r of the
system call when r is nonnegative, but will return -1 and set the
variable errno to -r when r is negative. For the error codes, see
errno(3).
When defining a system call, the argument types must be passed by-value
or by-pointer (for aggregates like structs).
EXAMPLE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <linux/unistd.h> /* for _syscallX macros/related stuff */
#include <linux/kernel.h> /* for struct sysinfo */
_syscall1(int, sysinfo, struct sysinfo *, info);
/* Note: if you copy directly from the nroff source, remember to
REMOVE the extra backslashes in the printf statement. */
int
main(void)
{
struct sysinfo s_info;
int error;
error = sysinfo(&s_info);
printf("code error = %d\n", error);
printf("Uptime = %lds\nLoad: 1 min %lu / 5 min %lu / 15 min %lu\n"
"RAM: total %lu / free %lu / shared %lu\n"
"Memory in buffers = %lu\nSwap: total %lu / free %lu\n"
"Number of processes = %d\n",
s_info.uptime, s_info.loads[0],
s_info.loads[1], s_info.loads[2],
s_info.totalram, s_info.freeram,
s_info.sharedram, s_info.bufferram,
s_info.totalswap, s_info.freeswap,
s_info.procs);
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
Sample Output
code error = 0
uptime = 502034s
Load: 1 min 13376 / 5 min 5504 / 15 min 1152
RAM: total 15343616 / free 827392 / shared 8237056
Memory in buffers = 5066752
Swap: total 27881472 / free 24698880
Number of processes = 40
SEE ALSO
intro(2), syscall(2), errno(3)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.